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Topic: Old Extract? (Read 7470 times)

Recently, I brewed an extract batch using LME (pale/gold and munich). When we opened up the extract, both the pale and the munich LME had a very noticeable molasses-like aroma too it and was a lot darker than we anticipated. We were shooting for a very light colored pale ale and wound up with something very red. The molasses/syrupy character also appears in the finished beer. Since switching to all grain brewing, I haven't used extract for many years and I have long since forgotten what extract should smell like. Does this sound like it was old extract? Thanks very much,

Thanks, guys. I can handle the color. But the stale, molasses/syrup thing is no good. Funny thing, I bought it from a place that touts their high turnover on extract, ensuring that they provide the freshest. Switching to DME for any future extract beers.

DME is always the better choice. I don't know about your local homebrew shop but at mine theyre the same price so if I follow a recipe with LME then I just switch it to DME 3.3 lme = 3lbs DME the .3 is all water weight

Did the same recipe today substituting DME for the LME and what a difference that made. My pale ale is actually pale, instead of the red ale the LME gave me. Smelled much more like my all grain batches, too. Thanks, everyone, for the tip.

By the way, on the last beer I made with the LME, the molasses character in the LME carried over into the finished beer. Way too thick, sweet and with a flavor and aroma of molasses/syrup. Dumper batch. Not doing LME again.

I would like to switch to DME but my go LHBS charges double for DME vs LME

3lbs LME- $7.50, 3lbs DME $15

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“Sometimes when I reflect back on all the beer I drank, I feel ashamed. Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the brewery and all of their hopes and dreams. If I didn’t drink this beer, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. Then I say to myself, “It is better that I drink this beer and let their dreams come true than be selfish and worry about my liver.

I recall someone on TechTalk years ago (I want to say it was John Blichmann) had done some tests using old cans of extract.

My recollection is that over pitching the yeast for some reason reduced the off flavors from stale extract.

I'd guess that the DME oxidation/aging causes the wort to underattenuate and pitching plenty of yeast helps bump the attenuation back up. It would also minimize esters, etc which might exagerate mollasses/caramel flavors.

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Delmarva United Homebrewers - President by inverse coup - former president ousted himself.AHA Member since 2006BJCP Certified: B0958

One of the methods in this patent is a low pitching rate such that the extended yeast growth absorbs unwanted flavors:

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However, unlike a conventional beer fermentation process, the cooled wort is oxygenated using substantially pure oxygen, and the Brewer's yeast is added at a relatively low pitching rate, typically, and preferably in the range of about 30 to 60 grams pressed yeast per 100 liters wort, and preferably about 45 grams pressed yeast per 100 liters wort. The normal pitching rate is about 170 grams pressed (wet) yeast per 100 liters of wort. This is a departure from prior art brewing techniques and is unexpected since prior art attempts to produce beer at relatively low pitching rates using conventional worts and normal aeration reportedly do not produce satisfactory fermentation results. (See B. H. Kirsop, The Brewer's Digest, July 1978, page 28 to 32). Adding the brewer's yeast at such a low pitching rate to oxygenated wort permits the yeast to absorb substantially all harsh and grainy flavors normally present in the wort.